Williams was convicted of the 1984 bludgeoning death of Amos Norwood, a 56-year-old man who was likely having sex with him. Williams is slated to be executed on Oct. 3.

View full sizeProvided photoArguing that Terrance Williams, seen here in high school, was sexually abused for years, defense attorneys contend that he should spend the rest of his life in prison, but he doesn'ÂÂt deserve lethal injection.

The primary witness in the case recently changed his story, claiming he told police and prosecutors that “the homosexual relationship” was the motive of the killing, but that they told him if he wanted leniency, he had best say the killing was motivated by robbery, which he did.

The prosecutor at the time, current U.S. Attorney Andrea Foulkes, says he’s lying.

The witness, Marc Draper, currently serving life in prison for his role in the murder, says Foulkes is lying.

Who to believe?

Astonishingly, documentary evidence surfaced last week that lends some credence to the convict’s story - enough evidence that Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina ordered the police investigation records to be hauled out of storage for inspection.

Since 1998 Williams has claimed that he had been sexually abused from the time he was a young boy and that his murders - there were two - were of men who had been sexually abusing him as well. The prosecution has maintained there’s no evidence of that and that allegations of Norwood’s penchant for young boys was a convenient but late story coming from family, friends and neighbors.

However, during the first day of testimony last Thursday, it was revealed in Foulkes’ handwritten notes from the time of trial that she and police investigators already knew of a mother’s allegations that Norwood had fondled her 16-year-old boy and that they had heard of “other possible incidents” between young boys and the 56-year-old, who was deacon of his local church, director of its youth theater fellowship and leader of the altar boys.

The jury did not hear about Norwood’s apparent fondness for boys or that he knew Williams before the day he was murdered. When the jury considered the death penalty, they were informed that Williams had also killed another man, 50-year-old Herbert Hamilton, by stabbing him multiple times.

The jury was told Williams had killed “two innocent men.”

But the jury in the Hamilton case had already decided not to convict Williams of the highest charges because — Foulkes revealed last Thursday — they were bothered by the evidence the old man was sleeping with the boy.

Foulkes also admitted that she had promised to write a letter to the Parole Board on Draper’s behalf for testifying — outlining for the board his cooperation in the case in the event he ever tried to get his sentence commuted.

Under questioning from Judge Sarmina, she admitted she never disclosed that promise to the defense, and said, “I’d do it differently today.”

On Monday Draper testified that he stuck to his old story — and refused to talk to attorneys for Williams — until early this year when he learned that Williams was out of appeals and nearing execution.

He said his Christian faith compelled him to change his story because “It wouldn’t be right” for Williams to be executed based on lies he’d told.

Prosecutors attempted for much of the day to poke holes in Draper’s testimony during cross examination.

They went step by step through his original testimony at the preliminary hearing and the trial trying to find out where he now claims he was lying.

Draper did not attempt to diminish his role in the killing, nor did he try to make himself look good.

He admitted most of what he’d testified to at the time was true.

He changed only the parts that emphasized robbery as the motive in the killing.

Though he admitted his recollection of what was said at the time was “hazy” after 28 years, his testimony largely held up as consistent.

Although the prosecution says it’s all a sham, the defense sees it as a more plausible scenario for the details in the case.

The original testimony had the robbery beginning in Norwood’s parked car with Draper choking him from the back seat. Then the three of them climbed a fence into Ivy Hill Cemetery, where Williams and Draper proceeded to strip Norwood, tie him up with his cloths, stuff a sock in his mouth and then return to the car for the tire iron and socket wrench they used to beat him to death.

Draper testified Monday that there was no robbery; that everything in the car was normal and that Norwood and Williams climbed the fence into the cemetery to go have sex. He said Williams subsequently returned, getting the tools and telling him to come along. He said Norwood was already stripped and tied up on the ground when he arrived.

Norwood was not a small man, standing about 6 feet tall.

The hearing was continued to Tuesday morning to allow the judge and attorneys to sift through the police records Monday night.

A prosecution staffer was overheard telling colleagues that people had been sorting through the boxes to find relevant information prior to Sarmina commanding they be brought straight to court.

A separate hearing has been scheduled for Thursday in Harrisburg to reconsider Williams’ request for clemency to the Pardons Board. The board voted 3-2 last week in favor of clemency, but it requires a unanimous vote to forward the request to the governor.

The prosecution in the first hearing gave inaccurate information in response to a question from one of the two members who voted against clemency.

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